Vale Wintersolstice

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I doubt that there will be a lot of people whom still play that remember this name. Nonetheless, I wanted to let you all know of his passing. For what has been a terrible last 2 years of people passing whom have had Wurm at their heart and soul, this one hits me the hardest. I learnt of his passing today through a friend whom no longer plays Wurm and reached out to me on Facebook. I don't know all the details yet so will update you all once I know more.

For those that don't know, Wintersolstice began playing Wurm Online in Beta map 7, almost 14 years ago. A time when the graphics where near as good as they are now, the player base was tiny in comparison, but it was still the game we've grown to love over the years. Winter was a person who was extremely caring and spent a lot of his days helping out not only those in his village but also others whom were in need, whether it be friend or foe. At the forefront of this, helping out new players was what he was great at. I started playing Wurm in September 2005. I tried to learn as much of the game as I could within the confines of a deed known as Grey Town and it wasn't long before I decided to venture off on my own with my brother, Mee. We stumbled across Wintersolstices' deed one day and noticed there were some unlocked fences which we decided to help ourselves to the items inside. We loaded absolutely as much as we could into the two small carts and ran off with our newly found bounty.

It had been about 45 minutes before we were stopped by this guy called Wintersolstice and he caught us red handed. Our carts loaded to the brim with items in his name among others. It was here that Winter gave us an ultimatum. He condemned us to live the rest of our Wurm lives with him, which turned out to be some of the most fun I've had in the years I have played Wurm and some of the most memorable. By the end of the very last beta map, I had been a part of his deed for almost a year, and we had made plans to make a deed called Silron Valley on the only PVP server that was accessible after the announcement that the game was going to go to 'Gold'. A year and a half had passed on this map, over this time, I'd joined multiple villages, quit two or three times and my parents had split up, I looked up to Winter as a father figure and still do. A catastrophic server failure meant that Wurm had to start over once more, in what is known as Gold 2, and the current cluster of servers, with the only surviving map from that era, known as Chaos. Again we found ourselves with Wintersolstice in the village known as Rivendell. We went through several iterations of this deed name and it was in the 3rd Rivendell that Winter learnt that he had congenital heart failure. He went in for an operation to have a pacemaker put in his heart and I had no idea what this was at the time but once he explained what it was, I knew it was serious and that at any time the unthinkable could happen.

Winter tried to still log in as much as he had in the past, the various health problems that Winter had meant he would be on for weeks at a time, and off for a week, there were a few times he would disappear for months only to pop up once again and tell me he had gone back into hospital. He wasn't in good shape at all. The last time I spoke to him was over a year ago, but I didn't know it would be the last time we would ever talk.

Winter called my brother and I Little dudes, we're all grown up now and I wish you had been around the last few years to spend some more time with us because we absolutely loved every moment of it and that's something I will never forget. Today is his birthday, December the 22nd. The Winter Solstice, the reason for his name.

Rest in peace Tommy. I'll miss you and you'll forever have a special place in my heart.

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OMG. Another ingame friend logs of for good. He was a good neighbour ingame. And i like to think he liked me aswell haha. Thx for many good tips and talks. We hadde a hard time ingame with allmost daily attacks on Rivendell and Valhalla. I se alot of my friends over here have written. Many fine words from Anettes family . Merry Christmas to us who still is here. We never know when we log of for good so live your life to the fullest . Greetings from Lokedott

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May not have known him as long as others but I've spoken to him on and off over the last 8 years or so since the days of wild. He was one of the last people to play on desertion, up until around a year ago when he stopped logging in, but he sure loved to chat anyone that logged in with his weird charm and sense of humor. Sadly it seemed anytime winter came back it was more talk about his health, but now he is free from it. Rip Winter

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Though I did not have the pleasure of meeting Winter, I’ve heard nothing but great things about him. It is truly sad to see yet another fellow Wurmian pass on, especially one who was so dedicated to helping others. Rest well, Winter.

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I remember Winter from the early days... and especially right after gold and we had PVP servers. Winter helped me out a lot when I was searching for artifacts, especially during the insidious spider wars.

Rest in peace Wintersolstice.

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This is absolutely terrible news.. My story with Winter is very similar as Rudies in the sense that he took me in a complete newbie from outside of Fathertimes old deed and gave me a home in West Haven. I know he always struggled with health issues but I hadn’t realized that he developed heart issues. People don’t realize how many players he had helped out over the years, whether if it was giving them directions or simple items to help them in their way. He never said no, it was always “I’ll see what I can do man”.

Even though he wasn’t as active in the past few years, this community has lost one of the true original Wurmians and someone who had shaped the way for tons of players to continue on playing or hold interest in the game. Wurm has been an outlet for me for many years to enjoy the company of others and built friendships lasting over 10 years now. If it wasn’t for Winter I would’ve never stuck with Wurm and developed these lasting friendships. I’m forever in debt to him..

He never said bye in Ventrillo.. so I guess it’s fitting.

Later dude...

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I am in total shock logging in today...reading whats happened. Winter was always a very warm, welcoming and kindhearted guy. It was Rudie who introduced me to Wintersolstice years back, yabbering on about how he was held captive by him, and forever in his service for stealing his gear lol.

I loved chatting to winter on vent, sharing tactics, tips and tricks, and even the deeper stuff real life family and health. I've had many a great fight along side Winter, One of them i remember he defended rivendell to the bitter end back on wild. He was so passionate! After dying outside the walls of rivendell, outnumbered, he would still run out the gates, yelling on vent. Grabbing any sword and shield he could find, he would keep attacking the enemy. Like an angry wasp. Those times i remember of him, were some of the best times i ever had in Wurm. I'm really gutted and shocked, i will miss you dearly mate! Wish i could have had that last teamspeak chat with you buddy.

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Damn... I check the forums from time to time just to see how the game is progressing and to see how the community is doing. Today I give it a look to find this and am crushed.

Rudie took me in shortly after the opening of Deliverance and eventually Winter joined us, these two would literally be the ones that taught me most everything I knew about the game. To this day when or if I login, my characters are all standing in the Rivendell area on Deliverance; I always considered the area to be "Home". Talking with Winter on Vent was a great time, venturing with him back and forth to Chaos a couple times was great; I don't think I'll ever forget the raid on Sparta cause that was also when Rudie and I were moving Winter from Chaos to Deliverance. His wisdom in the game was amazing, he knew just about every mechanic at the time inside and out, knew the best ways to train, and always played a big part in our Unique slaying adventures. Winter always gave what he could, would give the chain off his back for ya.

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Caring, giving, thoughtful and most of all one to give all of himself to others. My long time friend who always had the time to look after me. Yet another hole is now missing in the loving world of Wurm.

He once said to me "If I can ever be half as nice as you are, I will feel blessed" Well Sir, you were more than I can ever be!